Device for ironing laundry



M y 1966 J. A. LAPASTORA DEVICE FOR IRONING LAUNDRY Filed May 14, 1965 INVENTOR. JUANITO A. LAFASTORA 3 m ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,250,030 DEVICE FOR IRGNING LAUNDRY Juanito A. Lapastora, 22-53 47th St, Long Island City, N.Y. 11105 Filed May 14, 1965, Ser. No. 455,834 Claims. (Cl. 38-142) This invention relates broadly to sad irons and the use thereof in ironing, and an object of the invention is the provision of useful means in association with the iron to facilitate the job of ironing as well as provide greater convenience to the ironer.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a novel and useful stand to support the iron on an ironing board or the like, together with novel and useful means for maintaining taut the conductor cord plugged into the iron and thus prevent the latter from obstructing the board or the laundry thereon which is being ironed.

The above as well as additional objects will be clarified in the following description wherein reference numerals designate like-numbered parts in the accompanying drawing. It is to be noted that the drawing is intended primarily for the purpose of illustration and that it is therefore neither desired nor intended to limit the invention necessarily to any or all of the exact details shown or described except insofar as they may be deemed essential to the invention.

Referring briefly to the drawing, FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating an embodiment of the invention in use on an ironing board.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the supporting stand for the iron, showing the latter releasably mountedon the ironing board.

FIG. 3 is a view taken in the direction of the arrows 3-3 of FIG. 2, showing the ironing board in section.-

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary enlargement of details of the cord-tauteniug means shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary enlargement of FIG. 2.

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary enlargement of FIG. 3, showing related parts in an intermediate position.

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary side view of the suspended weight shown in FIGS. 1 and 4.

Referring in detail to the drawing, the numeral 10 designates an ironing board or like panel, one of whose supporting legs is shown at 11, FIG. 1. The numeral 12 designates the support or stand for the iron 13 as a whole, and includes an'intermediate inverted-V-shaped portion having oppositely sloping walls 14 and 15. The wall 15 has a transverse shoulder 16 formed therein near the lower edge thereof. At their lower edges the walls 14 and 15 have extensions or feet 17 and 18, respectively, lying in a common plane.

Extending from substantially the level of the shoulder 16 partway upward along opposed edges of the wall 15, are inwardly sloping wings 19, the angle of whose slope is complementary to the angle of the bevel 20 along the bottom edge of the iron 13. Thus, when the iron is at rest on the wall 15 as shown in phantom in FIG. 3, the heel of the iron rests on the shoulder 16 and the lower portions of the beveled edges on both sides of the iron register against the wings 19. The iron is thus maintained in stable condition on the stand.

The following means is provided for securely locking the stand 12 on the board 10, which means is indicated as a whole by the numeral 21. The means 21 consists of two resilient steel cables, shown at 22, but they may be made of rubber instead of steel, if desired. At one end the two cables are secured in spaced relationship to a header 23 provided with a deformed lip or hook 24 adapted to engage a yoke 25 anchored to the foot 18. At their opposite ends the two cables are secured in similarly spaced relationship to a header 26 in which a yoke 27 is 3,259,630 Patented May 10, 1966 pivotally mounted. The two legs 28 of the yoke 27 are resilient to permit squeezing them toward each other to permit insertion of their outwardly deformed extremities or catches 29 into slots 30' in the foot 17. It is-to be noted that both feet 17 and 18 are formed by doubling back the edges of the sheet metal of which the stand 12 is formed, that is, doubling back and under the said edges. The slots 30 in the foot 17 therefore extend only through the upper of the two layers of the foot 17 The yoke 25 is similar to the yoke 27, and its opposed legs are likewise resilient and provided with catches, not shown, like the catches 29, which are adapted to be engaged in slots 31 in the upper layer of the foot 18. Hence the yoke 25 is also pivotally anchored to the foot.

It is thus obvious that the means 21 may readily be detached at both ends from the stand 12. However, normally it is desirable to detach only the hooked member 23 from the yoke 25 to remove the device from the board, as it is then a simpler matter to reattach the device by simply reengaging the hook 24 in the yoke 25.

A power cord adapted to be'plugged into an outlet socket, not shown, is indicated at 32. This cord leads through an opening in the Wall 14 to a junction box 33 secured to the underside of this wall. A socket 34 fed by the connections within the box 33 is mounted in the wall 14, substantially as shown, to receive the plug 35 on the cord 36 which leads to the iron 13.

A common nuisance in ironing is the getting in the way of free movement of the iron, of the cord 36. This ditficulty is overcome by the present invention. A strip 37 is shown mounted between the two layers of the foot 18, and fixed to the top layer as by bolts 38. This strip has an upturned right-angle extension 39 which is rounded, as shown. An elongated stem 40 is formed of three parts 41, 42 and 43. The part 43 is a rigid rod, and the part 41 includes a rigid rod 44. The part 42 is a tight steel spring in the opposite ends of which the rods 43 and 44 are locked. Thus the three parts 44, 42 and 43 together compose a normally straight stem whose midportion is flexible but which after bending firmly returns to the straight position. I

The right-hand end, FIGS. 2 and 3, of the rod 44 has integral therewith a disc-shaped rounded extension 45 which is rotatably mounted flush against the extension 39 of the strip 37 by means of a bolt 46. It is obvious in FIGS. 1 and 3 that the stem 40 extends, as it may be expressed, tangentially from the extension 45, so that in its position shown in full lines the stem rests on the fiat surface of the ironing board. When not in use the stem is rotated through substantially degrees into the position thereof shown in phantom in FIG. 3, thus compacting the overall mass of the device when it is removed from the ironing board or when, for whatever purpose, it may be desirable to get it out of the way. A spring 47 has one end secured about the inner end of the pivot bolt 46 and is deformed to pass around the periphery of the extension 45 through a notch 48 in the edge of the extension 39. The other end 49 of this spring is further bent to engage the outer surface of the extension or ear 45. Two diametrically opposed notches50 and 51 are provided in the peripheral edge of the ear 45, as shown. Thus, the spring firmly ties the parts 45 and 39 together in frictional contact and the engagement thereof of the portion 47a. in the notch 51 maintains the stem 40 in the position shown in full lines in FIG. 3 whereas such engagement in v the notch 50 maintains it in the position shown in phantom in FIG. 3. Thus the stem 40 is releasably maintained in either extreme position. In the extended position shown in full lines the outer end of the stem 40 is positioned beyond the edge of the ironing board.

Rotatably mounted on the outer end of the rod 44 portion of the stem 40 is a pulley 52. A sleeve 53 is sweated 3 or otherwise fixed on the rod 44. A coiled spring 54 surrounding the sleeve has one end 55 anchored to the sleeve. The spring extends in an enlarged spiral and has its other end deformed into a straight pin or shaft 56 parallel with the rod 44 and has rotatably mounted thereon a small guide pulley 57. Thus the spring 54 maintains the two pulleys in a common vertical plane with the sheaves thereof in frictional contact.

It is apparent that the small upper pulley may readily be lifted away from the larger pulley 52 to permit training between the pulleys the flexible electric cord 36. A weight 58 has extending therefrom a bracket 59 in which a pulley 60 is rotatably mounted. The bracket on one side of the pulley does not extend substantially below the pulley shaft, thus leaving an open space for access to the underside of the pulley, which space is normally blocked by a door 62 pivoted to the pulley shaft 61. It is obvious, therefore, that the length of cord 36 between the pulleys 52, 57 and the plug 35 may readily be trained on the underside of the pulley 60 to suspend the weight 58 therefrom. Thus the weight will maintain the cord 36 on both sides thereof taut at all times, and the weighted pulley 60 is free to ride along the cord in either direction. Hence the stretch of cord extending from the iron 13 is maintained taut and kept out of the way of both the iron and the laundry being ironed. In the intervals during which laundry on the ironing board is being arranged or otherwise handled, the iron 13 is mounted on the stand 12 as indicated in FIG. 3, with the ironing cord 36 always maintained taut and out of the way.

In order to indicate that power is on in the socket 34, a pilot light 63 is provided on the stand 12 in a conventional manner.

It is to be noted that the stem 40 is normally held in straight line position by virtue of its spring portion 42; thus it can bend following the tendency at times for the cord 36, While being shifted by the moving iron, to twist the stem or to run from the pulley 52 at an angle to the plane of the pulley. The combination of the two pulleys 52 and 57 constitutes a guide, or guide means, for the longitudinal movement of the cord 36 therethrough to prevent the cord from running ofr the outer end of the stem 40. Further, the manner of suspending the weight 58 from the cord 36 makes the weight slidably suspended from the cord so that it may move freely in either direction along the cord in accordance with the force of gravity.

While the invention has been described with particular reference to the construction shown in the drawing such is not to be construed as a limitation upon the invention which is best defined in the appended claims.

The invention having thus been described, what is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is as follows:

1. In combination, an ironing board, a sad iron, a flexible conductor cord having one end connected to said iron, a stand mounted on said board and having a power outlet thereon, an elongated normally substantially horizontal member having one end thereof secured to said stand, means for securing the stand to the board in a position wherein the other end of said member extends beyond an edge of the board, a pulley rotatably mounted on said other end of said member, said cord having a plug on the other end thereof plugged into said outlet, a weight slidably suspended from said cord, said cord between said weight and said iron being trained about said pulley.

2. A combination according to claim 1, having guide means positioned above said pulley and resilient means urging said guide means downward against said pulley to constrain said cord to travel over said pulley.

3. A combination according to claim 2, said resilient means comprising a spring having one end anchored to said member adjacent said pulley, said spring having the other end thereof deformed into a shaft spaced from and parallel with the axis of said first pulley, said guide means comprising a second pulley positioned in the same plane as said first-named pulley and rotatably mounted on said shaft. I

4. A combination according to claim 2, said member comprising a stem including for at least a portion of the length thereof resilient means normally urging the stem to extend in a substantially straight line.

5. A combination according to claim 1, said stand having an upright extension thereon, said stem having an upright extension on said one end thereof, said extensions being pivoted together on a horizontal axis whereby said member may be folded back from the normalsubstantial- 1y horizontal position thereof to a position at a substantial angle thereto, and releasable means for selectively locking said member in either of said positions.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 4/1953 Millman 3s 142' 6/1954 Robinson z4s s1x 

1. IN COMBINATION, AN IRONING BOARD, A SAD IRON, A FLEXIBLE CONDUCTOR CORD HAVING ONE CONNECTED TO SAID IRON, A STAND MOUNTED ON SAID BOARD AND HAVING A POWER OUTLET THEREON, AN ELONGATED NORMALLY SUBSTANTIALLY HORIZONTAL MEMBER HAVING ONE END THEREOF SECURED TO SAID STAND, MEANS FOR SECURING THE STAND TO THE BOARD IN A POSITION WHEREIN THE OTHER END OF SAID MEMBER EXTENDS BEYOND AN EDGE OF THE BOARD, A PULLEY ROTATABLY MOUNTED ON SAID OTHER END OF SAID MEMBER, SAID CORD HAVING A PLUG ON THE 